Hi,
This thread has been created not for discussion but only for posting POIS study updates. Please contact me via private message if you wish to post something here (eg media links related to Dr. Komisaruk's study etc).
Barry Komisaruk, PhD (Principal Investigator), Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Rutgers University
Newark, New Jersey, USA
Study title: Is POIS a Case of Vagal Dystonia? -- An fMRI Brain Activity Analysis
NORD (
http://rarediseases.org/) study:
Statement 1
"The IRB applications authorizing our study have been approved, the POIS questionnaire characterizing relevant medical history and symptomatology has been developed, site-tested, and expanded, and will now, upon IRB approval, be distributed to the POIS forum for more extensive response and analysis.
POIS sufferers have been contacted, interviewed, and local POIS persons will be the first to participate in the physiological interventions. The necessary equipment has been obtained, the physiological measurement methods have been developed and are functioning properly, and the necessary fMRI procedures and analysis methods have been developed and are ready to be deployed."
Statement 2:
"A preliminary interpretation of our current data is that POIS symptoms are accompanied by a lowered heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), and that vagal stimulation may produce a beneficial effect on POIS symptoms (increased heart rate and HRV) as a 're-bound' from the vagal stimulation. These are very preliminary findings and continued research with additional participants is underway, to assess the reliability of these findings."
Statement 3
I am missing the attachment with the stats summary but you can see it on this link:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?"Based on the 97 respondents (mean age: 33.5 years) summarized in the attached Table, a clear picture emerges of the age of onset of POIS symptoms as being in adolescence (mean: 18 years of age), that POIS symptoms can be triggered by self- or partner erotic stimulation that does not necessarily involve intercourse. Penile stimulation is the most prevalent inducer of POIS symptoms compared to rectal or prostate stimulation. The POIS symptoms that are most prevalent are: “Brain fog”, lack of concentration, and fatigue, each of which symptoms were reported by at least 82% (80-83/97) of the respondents. These three symptoms are also the most severe, as indicated by a Likert scale (i.e., subjective rating of severity on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the most severe possible). In order of decreasing intensity, the most prevalent symptoms are: “Brain fog”, lack of concentration, fatigue, depression, irritability, anxiety, headache, and nausea. These range from brain fog, with a mean intensity of 7.6 out of a maximum of 10, to nausea, with a mean intensity of 4.8. The mean durations of these symptoms were reported to range from 2.8 to 5 days (mean = 4.4 days). Somewhat surprising to us, and which will require a slight modification of our protocol, is that the latency of onset of these eight POIS symptoms ranged from 2.2 to 3.7 hours (mean = 3.1 hours). We now will continue our recordings in the laboratory for at least 4 hours post-orgasm, as the latency for the POIS symptoms is evidently longer than we were led to believe originally. It is clear from this summary table that POIS is reliably characterized by a highly distressing cognitive and physical state that starts within a few hours after orgasm and persists for days. We plan to publish these findings, which we trust will raise awareness of this distressing condition. We hope that the vagal tone component of our research will reliably shed light on the cause, and suggest therapy, for POIS. We already are seeing, as presented in our progress report submitted December 13, 2015, that after orgasm, the HRV index is relatively low compared to resting and exercise. If our continuing research shows this to be a reliable phenomenon, it suggests that procedures designed to reduce vagal tone may be effective in counteracting or preventing POIS symptoms."
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Forum introduction page for reference:
http://poiscenter.com/forums/index.php?topic=1.msg18375#msg18375
